August 19, 1987
The President today announced the appointment of B. Jay Cooper to be Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Press Secretary, effective September 8, 1987.
Mr. Cooper has been Director of Public Affairs and Press Secretary at the Department of Commerce since September 1983. He first came to the Commerce Department as the Secretary's speechwriter in March 1981. Previously Mr. Cooper was an editor for the Waterbury (Connecticut) Republican-American newspapers. He had served as a reporter for those papers for about 10 years and also wrote a weekly political column. During a leave of absence from the newspapers in 1980, he served as communications director for the Connecticut Reagan-Bush campaign. While at the Waterbury newspapers, he won several awards, including the UPI New England Community Service Award.
He majored in journalism at Northeastern University in Boston, earning a bachelor's degree in 1973. Mr. Cooper was born in Waterbury, CT, on June 9, 1950. He lives in Arlington, VA, and has three daughters.